Inbound

How to spell inbound

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce inbound

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inbound mean?

1. adjectiveTravelling or directed toward a particular place, rather than away from it.

Inbound in a sentence

• The inbound train was delayed by twenty minutes at the junction.

• The call centre handles all inbound enquiries from customers.

Where does inbound come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This is a compound of the everyday preposition 'in' and the adjective 'bound' meaning 'headed for' or 'on the way to'. The second element is the surprising one: this 'bound' is not the same word as the 'bound' that means tied up, but comes from the Old Norse buinn, the past participle of bua, 'to prepare or make ready', which Norse settlers brought to England well over a thousand years ago. Someone who was 'ready' to set out was, by extension, 'bound' for a destination, which is the same sense preserved in phrases like 'homeward bound'. The full word 'inbound' is comparatively modern, taking shape in English in the nineteenth century in shipping and railway contexts to describe traffic moving toward a port or terminal. In recent decades it has spread into business and telecommunications, as in inbound calls and inbound marketing, but the spelling stays reliably regular because both halves are common, transparent words.

How the word is built

• in- (toward, into)
• bound (going, headed for; from Old Norse buinn 'ready, prepared')